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September 18, 2012

Meet the correspondents: FORT WORTH, USA > James Richards

"Hello all, I'm Jim Richards. I'm based in Fort Worth, Texas, and
grew up in and around New Orleans. It’s hard to express how excited and honored
I am to join the roll of Urban Sketchers correspondents.

It seems most of my life revolves around drawing. At my urban design firm Townscape, we create plans
and designs for “people places” such as town centers, urban villages, public
spaces and the like. Freehand sketching
is how I explore and share those visions. I’ve recently joined the faculty of
the School of Architecture
at the University of Texas at Arlington
as a full-time professor, where I teach design and freehand drawing to graduate
students of landscape architecture.
Location sketching permeates all these creative efforts. For designers, seeing, drawing and
understanding what is becomes a
springboard for envisioning and drawing what
can be.

I’ve traveled and sketched in 36 countries so
far. My sketchbook is my passport to new
places and situations, and helps me meet new friends along the way. I promote
freehand sketching through magazine articles, lectures and hands-on workshops
at universities across the U.S.
and abroad. My first book,Freehand Drawing and Discovery: Urban
Sketching and Concept Drawing for Designers, features contributions from
several USK correspondents and kindred spirits, and is due from John Wiley and
Sons in February 2013.

I became a member of Urban Sketchers back in
2010, and was a lecturer at the 2nd International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon. The Lisbon experience
inspired me to enlist some regional talent to start Urban Sketchers Texas. I’m proud that we had 5 Texas
sketchers at the Symposium in Santo
Domingo!

My wife Patti and I traveled to Louisiana for the LSU vs. Washington football game last weekend; the
sketch here is a glimpse of the wild pre-game tailgating scene on the LSU
Parade Grounds. Students were
fascinated, watching over my shoulder and offering me beers. Who knows; maybe I’ll see more sketchbooks at
the next game."